The Fall Of Aura
by JZuCuadra
Summary: A continuation on The Hollow Man's 'Angel in the Machine'. Ash is struggling to understand and learn more about his Aura powers in time to help others, and defend himself, from the Enemy. But will he survive an attempt on his friends, or will he crumble from the pressure of being the last hope for humanity. Disclaimer: I will never own Pokemon.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:**

**Welcome Readers to my very first story for fan fiction, and I honestly chose a very difficult story to be my first. This is a continuation of The Hollow Man's story, Angel in the machine, so if you haven't read that, I would suggest you read it first as nothing will make sense until you do. You will probably notice how I am nowhere near as good as he was as an author, but I will do my best to finish this amazing story that he created for us.**

**Well, I hope you enjoy;**

**Sincerely, **

** JZuCuadra  
**

* * *

What I felt first was the smell; it was as obscuring as that which was making it, a completely overpowering and horrible smell of blood coming from everywhere at once.

And then there was the source of the blood.

It was weird really, I had been running with near inexhaustible energy since the arena, but now, when I come face to face with what I feared most seeing, I don't have the energy to move anymore, or to think something other than _this can't be real, this can't be happening. _But it is, laid out on the bed is May, with what appears to be some sort of a fragment of a sword sticking out of her, and next to her is Misty, gently speaking to her, not looking at all better, with multiple cuts and scratches all over her body. If not for the current situation, I would take my time to admire her beautiful body, her torn up clothes not leaving much to the imagination, but I don't care at the moment, all I care is for that young woman, lying on the bed, dying.

At this point my strength comes back to me, and I suddenly find myself next to the bed. As soon as Misty senses I'm there she turns to me, an expression of anger and gut-wrenching pain visible in her face. It is obvious she expects to see the person that did this, coming back for some reason, possibly to finish the job. But when she sees it's me, her face softens, as much as it ever does for Misty anyways, and her eyes say it all.

"What happened?" I managed to get out, my voice hardly more than a whisper

"He was waiting for us when we got here," she begins explaining. "May came into the room first, and got stabbed as soon as she did; there was no chance to react, nothing. The asshole then thinks that because he got one, the other would be easy too. He didn't count on the fact that seeing one of my friends stabbed through the gut would give me all the motivation I would need to stop him" Her voice actually cracks at the end, she just can't hold it together any longer.

"Do you know who it was?" I ask, a bit of hope, obvious in my voice

"No, his head was covered by a hood, and his entire body was cloaked, i don't even know if he was really a man to begin with, but he was probably just somebody that wanted to get ahead in the competition, by any means necessary." She continued, her voice appearing neutral, but to someone who knew her distaste was obvious. "I managed to drive him away, and then get May onto the bed, after that, i don't know how long it was until you came."

We stand there, just looking at May, we both now that by now taking her to a hospital would be useless, h=the blood loss alone would be enough to do her in anyways.

I am then stricken by a sudden idea. _"Kaelus…KAELUS…__**KAELUS!"**_

…_Yes?_

_"Is there any way to save her?"_

_There is not, and even if there was, it would not be within my abilities to do so, as my abilities do not lie in the healing of oth…_

I tune him out, knowing that he won't be of any help, but for some reason get the feeling that he wasn't being entirely truthful with me, either way; I know deep in my heart that there must be something that I can do to help her. There has to be.

I just do what my heart tells me then, and its telling me there is a way to do it "Misty, I need your strength to do this, grab my hand." I say in a despairing tone. She looks at me oddly, but complies nevertheless. As soon as she does, I feel a surge of strength going into me, into my aura, and I suddenly understand what I need to do. I grab May's hand with my free one, and begin channeling my power. "Misty," I tell her, my voice strained, "You need to remove what's left of the blade from her body". She turns to argue with me, but when she sees the crazed look in my eyes, does as I say. The blade makes an unnatural, and unhealthy, sound coming out of her body, but I ignore it, deciding that I have more important things to do.

_I must really be crazy, if I think this actually might work_, but still maintain my bond with both May and Misty, my two pillars, giving me the strength that I need to save her life. I don't realize it until the moment Misty tells me." Ash... You're glowing..." , at first, I think that I must have heard wrong, but looking down at myself, I see that she's right, my body is outlined by a soft blue coloured light, much like the colour of the Aura Sphere Riley showed, so many months ago.

I can feel our three auras, connected as we are, and the difference between the two vibrant auras of Misty and I, and the comparably weaker aura of May. "Please Haruka; don't give up on me now, I... I love you, don't go now, don't leave me alone again." I don't know where the words are coming from, but they seem to be working, May's aura is getting stronger, her wounds are starting to heal; not completely, but enough that her condition is not life threatening anymore.

We keep this up for about another five minutes, before my knees buckle and i am lying on the floor, out of breath from what i did. "Ash, how...what...how did you do that?" Misty asks me, in one of the rare moments she's ever speechless, and I reply, after catching my breath and struggling back to a standing position.

"I'll tell you both later, for now, she only ben stabilized, not completely healed, we need to get both her and you to the Pokémon centre ASAP". Looking over at her, I can see that she's not going to drop it "Mew, Misty please, just drop it for now, I already told you that I would explain it all later, but when may's conscious, both of you have been healed, and are a bit more... dressed. Hey, no need to do that, just trying to lighten the mood" At the comment on how they were dressed Misty had pulled out her mallet, I really needed to ask her where she got it from, and that was something I could do without for now.

"Fine, but you are not getting out of an explanation this time." and we both grabbed May and started carrying her.

* * *

Both may and misty, albeit somewhat grudgingly, were now checked into the Pokémon centre and getting healed up of their injuries. Unfortunately, since both May and Misty were injured, they would be both disqualified from the competition, on the other hand, now I could stop tearing my hair every time the both of them were in a fight.

_You have some explaining to do._

_"Ahhh, i was wondering when you were going to talk to me."_

_When exactly, or i guess, how did you learn dark aura?_

_"Uhhh, last night, and I'll keep the how to myself, thank you very much."_

_What do you mean you'll keep it to yourself; you don't keep anything from me._

"_I don't see why I'm not allowed to keep anything from you, but you lied to me earlier, and I had to save may without any of your help, and don't even try to lie to me right now, I know that the knew there was a way, so I'd say that we are even."_

_What do you mean even, I'm the one that saved you, back in Baal's cave, and without me you'd be..._

But I didn't want to know what I'd be without him, because at that moment I noticed both Cynthia and Dawn standing near the entrance of the Centre, after a moment, Cynthia leaves, and that gives me the perfect opportunity for speaking with Dawn, something was definitely wrong with her, and it was hogh time to find out what.

I kept tuning Kaelus out once more, marveling at how easy it had become, and walked up to Dawn "Hi there Dawn, fancy meeting you here"

She turns around, a look of shook on her face. "Oh, hi Ash, what are you doing here?"

"i was jut dropping Misty and May off, they were attacked after a shopping trip, and May was stabbed before Misty managed to drive the man away" As I say this, I see a look of guilt cross over Dawns face before it changed to an expression of deep sadness, it was only there for a second, but in my time knowing Dawn, I had gotten better at reading her, and what I saw just now scared me for some weird reason, it was almost like she knew what was going to happen, but didn't prevent it either.

"Is she ok?" She asks in return.

"May..." I hesitate, but then answer "she didn't make it…" her face turns white, in confirmation of my earlier guess, and I decide to continue "but you already knew this was going to happen, did you not? Why didn't you do anything to stop it?"

If her face wasn't white before, now it's like all her blood had been drained from her system, "What do you mean?" she asks hesitantly, trying to keep up the charade

"C'mon dawn, you and I both know who is behind all of this, but since you are trying to play innocent, why don't I tell you." I pause, trying to gauge her reaction to my words "I'm asking you why you didn't tell me that Lucas was going to try and kill my friends"

"Lucas?!" She looks shocked, but not of my question, more of the fact that I was able to guess who was really behind this, I guess most people's thoughts would have gone directly to Paul, never mind Lucas. But knowing what I had known, and the feeling I'd had ever since my meeting with him, I knew that he was really behind this.

Now if I could only figure out how to help Dawn. Because at this moment, I was sure that she knew what was going to happen, but had not told anyone for one reason or another, probably Lucas had promised to kill her or something. Most people would have been angry right now, but deep within myself, I could not find it in me to be angry at her, more than that, I felt pity, pity that because the son of a bitch, had ruined Dawn's life, and then he tried to kill my girls, one way or another, this was not going to end pretty.

"Yes. Lucas is behind this all, I know that, and I just want you to know that no matter what, i am here to help you. I only ask for you to tell me what's going on, and that way I'll be able to keep, you and everyone I love, safe." I say this with as much strength in my voice as possible trying to convey my feelings of safety to her, to help her to trust me.

"I trust you Ash, I'm just scared." She states, her voice trembling in fear. Now there was something new, I hadn't seen Dawn admit she was scared of Lucas yet, it's almost as if she wants someone to find out. Because, after years of carrying this weight on her, it must be weighting her down a lot, and to finally speak with someone about it, even if that someone is me, must be a blessing to her.

"Of what? Tell me Dawn, what was he going to do?" I all but begged her to talk to me.

"He… he was going to kill you, and hurt me," she finally speak after about a minute, he was going to torture all of my Pokémon, while I stood there not being able to do anything. Instead, I told him what to do to break you, so that he would not kill you… I told him to go after the girls." she finally admits, her voice thick with her own guilt.

"Well, it's a good thing he failed, now his masters are going to be annoyed at him, and that's going to lead him to do stupid decisions." I say in a mocking tone.

"Yeah… Wait, what do you mean he failed, he… he got May, didn't he?" She asks me, confused, "And what masters are you referring to, I thought he was working alone."

"It's nothing that you should worry about Dawn, in fact, even I don't have the full story yet, but that's not what matters right now, what matters is that we need to get you away from Lucas." I then think for a few seconds, "The easiest way to do that would be for you to stay with us for now."

"That wouldn't work." she replies quickly.

"What, why not?" I ask, confused, "My friends were not THAT bad, were they?" I say jokingly, waiting to hear her explanation

"I need to remain at the court, otherwise you might be implicated in kidnapping me or something," she says "also, it would draw unwanted attention towards you and your friends." She replied calmly, but I could detect the faintest grin at my small joke as well.

"Ok, I guess I'll have to talk to Cynthia, maybe get her to watch over you instead of Lucas, hopefully that way he won't have the chance to get to you." I reply after a quick thought.

She looks surprised at how casually I mention Cynthia's name "What do you mean you'll just talk to Cynthia, you can't just go up and talk to a champion, no matter if she is also part if the silver guard."

I just smile at her and tell her, "There's a lot you don't know about me," and that's the end of that. "Oh, and by the way, both May and Misty are fine, they are both still alive and well."

The expression on her face was priceless.

* * *

Once more Lucas found himself in his waking dream, although, he would guess nightmare was a more apt description. "What is it?" he asked in a polite and honoring voice, no matter how annoyed he was that his masters were checking up on him more constantly, the fact was that they could kill him without even lifting a finger if they wanted to.

A figure appeared on the other side of the smoke, giving his eyes something to focus on. "How did the mission go? From what I have heard before, you better hope it was successful." The voice spoke, his tone demanding, Lucas had no doubts that if something had gone wrong, they would get rid of him, sooner rather than later.

"It was." I said, finally happy at being able to deliver some good news. "While my assassin was not able to kill both females, he did manage to stab one through her body, and by the time he was driven away, blood loss and the inability to move her would by now have finished the job, and in so much grief, our prospective aura user will be completely incapacitated for the rest of the competition."

The robed figure seemed to consider this for a moment, then asks "Care to explain the huge release in aura that was felt earlier as well?"

"Release?" I ask, shocked.

"Yes, as well as the fact that the girl is not dead" he reveals. This information is not very pleasing to me, but if I thought that that was where it ended, I was wrong. "he seems to be achieving much in a short while, you yourself have told me earlier that as far as you knew, he could only use the electrical aura, but now he seems to have been able to achieve something only the most powerful and skilled of aura users can accomplish, the healing of another" He speaks, his voice filled with contempt. "Is there anything else that you wish to tell me?"

I clear my throat before speaking "He, um, may have used Dark aura in his match today, and what is worse, he controlled it like he had been using it his entire life." That's as far I got in that sentence, because I knew that anything else would not be very healthy for me to say, even so, what I _had_ said seemed to be enough, for my master, at least.

"That is enough," He tells me, "I don't care for your excuses anymore, if you have nothing better to tell us, or any good news at all, then be gone, but be warned" he says, his 'voice' sinking even further, much like a whisper, "this will be your last chance, if you do not achieve anything by the finals, then you WILL be replaced, and let me tell you this, we do not give second chances, you've already tested my patience once, do not do it again, or you will regret it. Now leave me".

Bowing to him, I feel my consciousness depart this place, and back to my own body ready to do as my master had told me.

Back in the alternate location, the leader was once more speaking to all "I don't care what you think if he does not come through, we would still have gained great insight into our opponents, I agree, he may not be up to the task, but…"

"He is not up to the task, and he may reveal more to others than we would like them to know, we wished to make our return in silence, now the guardians, what is left of them at least, will have prior warning to it" another one says.

"But…" the leader repeats "if he does succeed, the reward would be much greater than any risk taken, after all, the risk of him losing his nerve is non-existent, after all, he fears us, and that will keep him loyal to us, more than anything else could." And with that, all of the presences depart from that plane of existence.

* * *

After speaking with Dawn, I had found myself with the task of finding Cynthia in the huge hospital complex, sure, I could narrow my search down to the emergency ward, after all, Candice was overtaken by ice and nearly decapitated, if that's not what one calls an emergency, I'm not sure what is, but even so, it was huge, I guess the Devon people really wanted to get good rep for safety, after all, I'm sure that all of this was just to get good publicity, much like a way of telling the world that they are taking care of us. _ Yeah right…_

Even so, all it really took was a single trip down the wing until I saw Cynthia standing in front of a doorway, and then a short chat later, with the explanations behind the assassination attempts for Misty and May, as well as the suspected attempt for Dawn really got her interested, and with a promise of making sure that she'd take care of Dawn, as well as confirming that she'd do it herself, and not let Lucas have the job, I was on my merry way, that is, until I passed in front of Misty's room, and she, obvious, took that exact moment to wake up, and then, dragging me into her and May's room, which was how I ended up in my current situation. May and Misty standing, or well, Misty was standing while May was sitting, in front of the door, demanding an explanation behind my actions earlier in the day.

"Girls," I begin, "shouldn't you be resting, I mean, I know that you're both out of the competition now, but shouldn't you May, at least be recovering from being stabbed through the gut?"

"You don't have the right to tell me what…" Misty begins, before being cut off by May.

"What Misty is trying to say, is that while yes, we are still both in need of recovery, were perfectly ok to listen to whatever it is that you have to tell us." She says, while giving Misty a glare, "especially since it's the reason that I am in recovery and not… dead." She finishes, forcing out that last part.

I don't know what to do, on the one hand, from the very beginning I hated lying to May and Misty, and even without them knowing, look at what happened, I almost lost them and they wouldn't have even known why. On the other, some of this shit that I've been through is almost too much for me, never mind Misty, but then again, seeing her expression when I finish describing Baal, if I decide to tell that part that is, would be pretty much priceless. Then I look into their eyes, and lost any change of an argument. These are the people that even with all of my misgivings, all of my fault, of which there are many, I assure you and all of my wrongdoings, they are still there for me, and if I can't trust them, then who can I trust. So with heaviness in my heart I begin.

"Alright you win, I'll tell you, but let me just make this clear," I say before I actually start my tale, "what I'm about to tell you may just place you in more danger, let me just get started by saying that the attempt on your life today was not because of the tournament." I pause, letting them absorb that.

"The attempts on your life were nothing more than an attempt to imbalance and destroy me, to make sure that next time I fight, I'm too preoccupied with your deaths, that I would be an easy picking for anyone still in this tournament." I continue, making sure my voice is quiet so as to not be overheard. "The truth is not all for me to tell, I'm keeping secrets that aren't mine to give without repercussions, so whatever I tell you today will have to stay between us only."

"But, Ash, why would someone want to get you out of the tournament, and why not attack you directly? Not that I'm glad they didn't of course." May asks quietly, almost as if afraid of the answer.

I take a deep breath, and then looked at them both, this is it, I thought, if I tell them now, there is no going back, but am I ready to do this. I take a deep breath, look at them both, and say "Have you ever heard of Aura?"

* * *

**Well guys, I hope that you all enjoyed, any feedback is greatly appreciated, and I hope that you have a nice day.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys hows it going? I am truly sorry about the lack of updates for this story, and the fact is that school just caught up to me in a way I wasn't expecting it to. But no need to worry, seeing as we are now heading into the summer holidays, I should be able to get some time and work on the story some more. I will say that unfortunately, you wont ever be able to expect chapters from me daily, or even weekly, as I have other things to consider, such as a new job I've gotten over the summer. Other than that, hopefully from now on you can expect chapters every other week, and I promise one chapter every month at least, I'm in this for the long haul.**

**Something else i would like to address, is the serious lack of feedback I've received, i understand that I have a new story, and as such my following is still not very large, but either way, i would like to know how i could improve with my writing. Either way, I do believe this AN has gone on long enough.**

**Without further adieu, here is Chapter 2 of The Fall of Aura.**

* * *

"Have you ever heard of Aura?"

The silence that follows my words is almost deafening, I mostly expected Misty to answer, as she had been in the same classes as i had been to, but her understanding of Aura at best would only have been what mine was at the beginning, the idea of it nothing more than a fantasy, a myth. So imagine my surprise when May is the first to speak up. "Um, I don't know much about it, but I do know that most people consider it a myth, nothing more than the ramblings of a mad man, created to explain some things that happened in the dark wars." she finally said, the look on her face surprised that she actually managed to say it.

After another short silence, Misty spoke up once again "That's pretty much the same thing that they taught us at our school, that it was nothing more than make belief." but then she looked over at me and said "but that's not all there is to it, apparently."

I was actually surprised that Misty made this leap herself, usually being one to rely on facts before fiction or myth. But seeing the serious look that was no doubt on my face at the moment must have given her pause, if only for a second. "Unfortunately for us all, Misty is correct in that statement. Aura, well, Aura is everything, it is what binds us, what shapes us, Aura is the force behind all objects, living and non alike, and it is what allows us to live. Throughout history there have been few who have been able to tap into this energy to help them attain powers unlike those ever before." I pause to gauge their reactions before continuing. "Misty, there's a reason why I, after all of these years, still can't use Ki."

At this, Misty was actually surprised, "what do you mean that you can't use Ki, what the hell have you been doing this entire time?" She looks at me with a frown upon her face.

"Mist… what do you think I've been doing?"

This time it was May who answered "wait…" she began shyly "do you mean that all that you've been doing, all the Ki that you used from the beginning, was nothing more than aura?!"

"Yep, that's about right" I say, but then grin when something occurs to me that I haven't told them "But you were wrong about one thing, all the Ki that I have used is nothing LESS than Aura, Aura itself is probably about 100 times stronger." This statement had visible effects.

"What! Holy Mew Ash, but thats… impossible." they both said at the same time.

"Impossible it may seem to be, but for Aura, I'm quickly finding out that nothing is impossible." I said, trying not to laugh at their faces. "Anyways, as all cool as this may sound, there's always drawback to it, this power is not free for me to use, it comes with responsibilities... and consequences."

Misty being Misty couldn't let a good opportunity drop though "Ash Ketchum and responsibility, now I've definitely seen it all" she said with a smirk.

"Misty, I can tell you right now, that no matter what you may think, this story is a hell of a lot more complicated." I spoke, then continued without letting her speak again "Like I said before, telling you this could place you in even more danger, the truth is that I am not the only one with an ability to use Aura… in reality there's probably a few hundred of us. We call ourselves Aura Guardians."

"But what are you… its kinda hard to think of you as one, but what are Aura guardians guarding us from?" May whispers.

"I was kinda hoping that you wouldn't ask that… In reality, Aura guardians have been in a secret war for the past thousand years, fighting an unknown enemy of which I've only heard tales of. Unfortunately for us, they have taken an interest in this tournament, and want to see who wins it all, possibly to take them for their side, by force or otherwise." I said, "Also, it appears that for the past thousand years, while we have been licking our wounds, they have actually been reforming their armies, becoming stronger."

"But, how can you stop them, as you are now… no offense Ash, but if you're finding it difficult to even come out on top in this tournament, how can you even hope to stand against forces such as those." Misty asks always being the source of reason for me.

"Misty, I know I'm in some deep shit, but this is what I've signed up for, and do you seriously think that I'm at this alone?" I smirk, thinking of what this next piece of information will do to them, "there's a reason I was working with Lance the other day, and it's not only because he forced me to, I've been receiving personal training from both Cynthia and Lance themselves almost every day for the past few weeks. Actually, i had just come from talking with Cynthia when you two forced me into this room."

"WHAT!" They both shout at the same time.

After digesting this new piece of information for a few minutes, May speaks up once more. "Okay, so we get that you are in this shadow war with some group of enemies, but what exactly are these enemies?"

"May, the only thing that I'm going to tell you is that you do not want to know, trust I've come up against one of these _things_ up close and personal once before, and you do not want to hear what happened." I said, but when they asked for more, i looked at Misty specifically and spoke. "Fine, but don't say i did not warn you. In theory, imagine a giant mutated spider super resistant to all of my attacks. now make it about a hundred times worse and you've got Baal, a freakish spider thousands of years old, and that's one of the weaker monsters." Immediately after this piece of information, Misty starts freaking out as per usual when things about insects come into play.

After her little freak out session is over, Misty asks the question that was also probably in May's mind. "wait a freaking minute here, when the hell did all of this happen? You have been with us for the entire time, why did we not see or hear of this, if the fight was as though as you said it was, then we should have at least noticed some of the bruises on your body or something."

"Hehe…" I force out a small laugh "Misty, I'm pretty sure you saw all the bruises and scarring, as a matter of fact, you yelled at me for them, Almost drowning was most definitely the least of my problems when I fell of the freaking cliff during the second stage."

"Wait a fucking minute, you're here to tell me that under the stupid mountain that we were climbing there was some sort of prehistoric giant mutated spider, and neither me or Zoey even knew of it?" May all but yells at me. I look at her with a 'well... yeah' look in my face, and all she say then is, "Just making sure."

"Okay, so now we've heard your story, but Ash, I want you to promise me one thing…" I look up to Misty, intrigued by what she would want, partly expecting to be rejected now that they know how much trouble I actually am to be around. So I am most definitely surprised by the next words that come out of her mouth. "Please, don't keep any more secrets from us, were all in this together, I don't know how it all worked out, but both May and myself really care for you, and we can't help you if we don't know about what you're doing."

"Thank you guys, both of you really, but this isn't over, not by a long shot, let me just ask you something really important now, do the names Kasumi or Haruka mean anything to either of you?" I say, first looking at Misty, and the at May. At the blank looks in their faces, I sighed and continued on, "unfortunately, ever since this all began, I've started looking at you in a different light, not only as two beautiful young woman, but also as these two names, for one reason or another, every time I now look at either of you, I can't help but also refer to you as those names as well, i think it may have something to do with my aura and it also doesn't help the fact that the same thing happens when I see Dawn, in this case her name being Hikari. For some reason, I have this feeling, and it keeps telling me that we also need her to be part of our group, otherwise we won't be able to survive the coming storm."

"Well, she seemed nice enough, but…" May began, but was then interrupted by misty, who sounded very angry.

"I don't know what her problem is, I said it before and I will say it again, that girl was acting like a total bitch" Misty said, restating her words from earlier in the day.

"Maybe i can help you with that" I finally said, trying to come up with the best explanation for this new series of events.

"Well since you do seem to be filled with answers today, please, do enlighten us." Misty spoke in a scathing tone, clearly still mad at the direction this conversation was taking us.

"Ok, just please don't be too mad at her, she's had a harder life than most…" I spoke up, and then continued to not allow them to ask about my previous statement. "Misty, the reason she was acting that way was for no other reason than to hide her guilt. If you remember what I said before about the monster and stuff that I'm fighting,m unfortunately for us, they are able to recruit multiple humans to their cause."

"Hold up, are you telling now that Dawn is a spy for your enemy?" May asks quickly, assuming of course that's what I was getting to with my earlier statement.

"Fortunately for us, that's is not the case, instead though, she has been, for the past few years of her life, under the constant influence and threat, and it's not even from the source that you are all expecting. Paul is not the one I'm describing, instead it Lucas of all people who has been hiding behind the wall that Paul is putting up, and taking advantage of Dawn in many ways, because who would even consider Lucas when Paul is there." I told them, and quickly continued on at the disbelief in their faces. "Guys, I've read his Aura, i know he is not all that he appears to be."

"Then why do you say that dawn was feeling guilty?" may quickly asked, expecting my reply, but not exactly what was said.

"Because," i began, "It was Lucas that was behind the attack on both of you," at this i took pause, seeing the shock and pain on their faces. "Unfortunately, it was Dawn who officially had the idea, giving it to Lucas so as to spare me, since Lucas' original plans would have had me, instead of you guys, dead."

"That fucking bitch!" Misty yelled out, and immediately stood up with the intent to find her and make her pay for what almost happened.

"Misty, I've already spoken to her, and the guilt that she is feeling is genuine, she desperately wanted the both of you to be ok, in fact when she got over the shock that you guys survived. She was extremely glad that nothing major really happened to you, she really does care for us, and I mean ALL of us. Also, the only reason she did this was because Lucas forced her hand, remember, she has been abused since her childhood because of Lucas, its made her less self-confident." I took a breath, "She told me herself to tell you she was truly sorry, and that you were the only ones that had made her feel good in such a long time, that she hates herself for what she did."

"Fine," Misty spoke, in a tone that said it was anything but, "is there anything else you need to tell us, because if not, I think both me and May are going to need some time to rest, recover, and think about what you just said."

"Sure Mist, take as long as you need" I spoke, a hidden smile in my eyes.

* * *

I had gone back into training with Cynthia and Lance recently, more out of necessity than real want, due to the fact that both my, girlfriends?, yeah, girlfriends, were digesting just how truly fucked up my life was. It had been two days since the end of the conversation that happened between May, Misty and myself, and so I threw myself into the training, knowing that I needed to get better, faster, and stronger, if I wanted to be able to stop another attack against my girls.

Cynthia had been very surprised by my use of Dark Aura during my previous battle, and had been working on me extremely hard, both to find out the full extent of it, and to get it under control because according to her, it had been known to harm people more often than help them, and even turn some of them into evil creatures, capable of much destruction before they could be stopped. Lance had also been working me around the clock, now that we had a full week of practice time, he was finally able to start working me into the ground with some of those sword techniques that he so loved.

At the end of the day, all three of us decided that it had been a good day, Lance had managed to not set anything on fire, a miracle I know, and Cynthia was astonished at how controlled I had my Dark Aura, which reminded me that next time I saw Darkrai I needed to thank him, maybe buy him something nice, but what type of gift would the Lord of darkness want...

"Ash?" Cynthia asked me suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts, "there was something I wanted to ask you?"

"Sure, what do you need?" I ask, curious about what she was going to say, probably another question about the origins of my Dark Aura, but she looked like she had exhausted all of those already, and anyways, her face appeared different, like she had something else in mind.

"Did something else happen that you didn't tell me about when your friends were attacked?" she asks, after a second of thought.

I look up, startled, and answer her question, "Not really, what makes you think so?"

"Well, she began, I know for a fact that there is no one else on this island that has the ability to use aura like you do, and two days ago, just a bit after your match, I felt one of the greatest aura releases ever. Obviously I expect you to be behind it." she spoke as if she already knew she caught me, which to be fair, she really had.

I sighed, knowing I had been caught, and prepared myself to tell her what really had happened that day. "Ok, so you caught me, but let me tell you that I didn't tell, not because didn't want to, but because I myself are not entirely sure how it even happened."

"How what happened Ash?" She spoke softly, which eased some of my nerves, Cynthia is a nice person, but she's still a Champion, and I know never to get on her bad side, unless I want end up worse off than even Lance.

"When the girls were attacked, the damage that May suffered was a lot worse. In fact, before anything else happened, she was stabbed through the gut, and when I found them, Misty had already driven the attacker away but... May was dying, and it was already too late for anyone to do anything." I sighed, remembering the feeling of helplessness I had from that situation. "I'm not sure what exactly it was that i did after, all I know is that I grabbed Misty's hand, asked her to trust me, and then, I… I guess i started to somehow focus my Aura, I took some from myself and Misty, and sorta, forced May to heal, and get better. And she did, I'm still not sure how I did it, but I healed May."

Cynthia was silent for a moment, then she started pacing around her large kitchen, "I can't tell you what this means Ash, because I don't know, I've never heard of anyone who could use Aura in such a way, I mean, there have been rumors of Sir Aaron doing things like that, but they were more thought to be myth than fact, now here you are doing the same thing. I just don't know what it means to be honest." She looked slightly scared, although i am not sure at what. "Either way, its been a long day, and you've worked yourself a lot recently take tomorrow off, I'm sure even you need time to relax. Especially after what you've told me."

And so after that, I stood up, and thanking her once again for her time, I left.

* * *

I woke up later than usual for me next morning, but i guess that is to be expected, with the amount of work that I had done recently, i was feeling drained, and a good night's sleep, and perhaps a nice big breakfast would be just what is needed for me to get my energy back. As soon as I stepped into the cafeteria, the smell hit me like a truck. Apparently now that most of the competitors were out, Devon had decided to treat us with some pancakes and bacon for our breakfast.

I looked over towards our table, where I could see May, Misty, and Gary eating, while Brock looked like he was already finished and sat there discussing what their plans for the day. Brock had apparently decided that he enjoyed torture, and as such was willing to give the Nurse Joys of the surrounding area another change to fall for him, or more likely, to cause him incredible pain in some rather… unpleasant areas. Misty just wanted to have a day to swim at the beach, a sentiment which was shared by Zoey, although for different reasons, because even if she couldn't swim, she very well could tan. This though left May high and dry, as she wanted to spend the day at the mall, but not if no one wanted to go with her, and tried to communicate as much between her bites of bacon and pancakes.

It was at this moment that Misty spotted me, and turning to May she said "well, here is Ash, now you wont have to go to the mall by yourself he can take you." She said while looking at me, basically stopping any and all argument then and there, though May seemed not to notice.

May looked at me hopefully "You'd do that Ash?"

I quickly replied, trying and failing to not pay attention to the 'please her, or else' look Misty kept sending my way. "Of course May, it's the least I could do for you, after what happened."

"Oh my mew Ash, thank you so much, also, it's about time we went shopping with you, you've been wearing the same stuff for long enough." she answered back gratefully, and after receiving looks of amusement and understanding from both Brock and Gary, we all went our separate ways.

* * *

It was definitely a novel experience to go shopping with May, much more enjoyable than I expected, but then again my main experiences with shopping came mostly from Misty, and she was never one to let you do things at your own pace. May was more understanding about my tastes, and was much more free about what she was wiling or not willing to try on, which was a nice change of pace as opposed to Misty. I was finding that complimenting May came a lot more naturally now, and even though we were not officially dating yet, both of us were at the stage where we wanted to finish sorting out the state of our relationship.

Eventually, we ended up at the only place that two people of our distinct appetites could end up at, the food court. After ordering enough to feed a small third world nation, both myself and May ended up chatting about mostly unimportant things, the new articles of clothing that she had obtained, what she had insisted on buying for me, which I wasn't as mad about as I actually expected myself to be, since May just seemed to accept that part of me and take it all in stride, not letting anything bring her down.

Soon enough, both me and her decided to just relax for the rest of the day enjoying each others company, the mall itself slightly crowded, but not so much that one could not enjoy just simply walking by and window shopping, in May's case. Somehow, we ended up holding hands, though I am not quite sure when May made the move, or even if it was I who initiated the motion. This thought had just struck me when May started speaking.

"Thank you so much for coming with me today Ash, I really needed a day to just get away from it all, but the fact that you came with me made it all the better, especially since i know that this isn't really your idea of fun." she spoke sincerely.

"Actually May, it was better than what I expected, it's a lot easier to shop with you than it is with Misty, and a lot more enjoyable." I responded in much the same way, what i was telling her the complete truth. "But don't expect a lot of this, you know I'm still not your boyfriend, technically."

May was quiet after this, looking like she was deep in thought. "Well," she said, a small grin adorning her face, "there is one way to fix that."

I look up at this, wondering where she was going. "I mean, I've already told you that I love you, i guess that what I'm really asking is, do you feel the same about me?" she spoke up, and quickly added before I could reply. "Remember that this has nothing to do with Misty, imagine she wasn't here, I'm asking you what you feel about me."

Shocked at the question, it took me a few moments to come up with a good answer for this. "Well May, um, You already know that I would be willing to die for you. But in the time that I've known you, you acted like a pillar of strength for me. You are one of the few people I've told anything about myself about, and only you and Misty know anything about my Aura. The truth is you're of the few people that have ever taken me out of my walls, you've accepted me for who I am, and I'll be damned if I don't love you."

May was unable to say anything for a while, but then just looked at me, and said "Thank you Ash, you have no idea what that means to me." And with that she leaned forward and kissed me, this time not on the nose, but on the lips. She made to back up, but I quickly leaned forward and captured her in another kiss, this one deeper, bringing my hands up to the back of her head to make sure she didn't leave. After a few more seconds, I broke up the kiss, and we both leaned back to catch our breath.

Having had our share of the mall, we both decided to head back to the hotel, and see what was happening. "So how do you think Misty is going to take this?" I asked May, hoping she would help my with my fiery redhead problem.

"To be honest Ash, I don't actually think that she is going to mind, especially because of the fact that she herself was actually wondering how long it was going to take you to bring of the courage to actually make a move on me yourself." at this she giggled, "I guess we will just never know the answer to that question, seeing as it was me who made the move today." she said, then giggled and gave me a quick peck on the lips.

"Woo, get a room you two!" A voice shouted from far away.

I turned around, and shouted back. "If it isn't Gary motherfucking Oak, well unlike you I can manage to keep my pants on, something you should try more often. Now why don't you go ask Zoey what she thinks."

"Sure, just remember, I asked for some pictures, and good ones too, where I can see both." And with a laugh he turned around and left.

"Sigh, I really need to give Gary a good smack on the head, he needs to learn the definition of subtle." I murmured to myself, then turn back to May, "now what do you say we turn go get some dinner and turn in for the day." And with her quick agreement, we leave for some more food.

* * *

I woke up early next day, and after grabbing a quick bite to eat, and leaving a note to both May and Misty that I would see them later in the day, I set out to my training spot, for some one on one time with my Pokemon, seeing as I really hadn't had a good training session with them in a while.

I was walking with Pikachu out, both because of his company and the fact that he really hates being kept in a poke ball when it's not necessary. When we finally reached our usual spot, we spotted something that wasn't there normally.

There, looking to be sleeping, lid a small blue Pokemon, which upon closer examination proved to be a Gible, something that had absolutely no business being anywhere in the area. "Wonder how it could have gotten here buddy, Gibles are quite rare Pokemon, and not something anybody will just leave out here."

"_No clue, but it doesn't really look that strong, think I could take it?_" Pikachu said while looking up at me. The Gible, appearing to have heard what was said, woke up from its nap, and immediately got itself into a battle position, appearing to be well versed in the act of combat.

Without my acknowledgement, Pikachu launched itself into an attack, quickly reaching the Gibles range, it shot of a thunderbolt before I could tell, it otherwise, and as was expected, when the thunderbolt reached the Gible, it did absolutely nothing but enrage it further. I could hear Pikachu's silent exclamation of astonishment, before Gible launched its own attack in retaliation.

As Pikachu saw the nearing attack, a sand tomb from the look of it, he attempted to escape, but in his overconfidence, he had approached overly much before launching his attack, and as such had left himself open to retaliation without any time to react. "Oh shit!" Was all that could be heard coming from Pikachu's mouth, having realized what a fool he'd been.

After becoming trapped in the vortex, which like being in his own personal sandstorm, and since his only attack which could affect the Gible was quick attack, which was currently unusable, he was left open completely, which Gible took advantage of completely.

Gible's next action left me shocked though, it started charging what appeared to be a Draco Meteor, the strongest dragon type attack. Unfortunately, when it was fully charged up, and near when the sand tomb was about to end, It attempted to fire, but it exploded without the attack being executed correctly, and all the damage rained down upon itself, effectively leaving it at the end of its strength. Never the less, it still wanted to battle, so as soon as the sand tomb ended, I did my first command to my Pokemon "Pikachu, quick attack, finish it off." As soon as i finished speaking, Pikachu shot off as into a yellow blur, which quickly connected and dispatched of his weakened opponent.

I took this opportunity to grab one of my remaining poke balls, and quickly lob it at the Gible, seeing how rare it was and how bad it would be for it to be left here by itself, untreated and alone. It struck true, and after a quick fight within the poke ball, the Gible relented and allowed itself to be captured, adding another member to my now growing team. after picking up Gible's new poke ball, I looked over at my buddy, who was now making a fool of himself by showing off his non-existent muscles, and told him "As I was going to say before, no, I don't think you could take it on, the fact is that it mostly attacked itself." Pikachu immediately face-planted, and upon getting back up, growled something at me about getting back to training, and promptly left to do some accuracy practice with his thunderbolt.

Since it was for this reason that we had even come here in the first place, I decided to listen to Pikachu, and quickly released the rest of my Pokemon team, before grabbing a specific poke ball and walking over to the lake. I then released Feebas, who appeared from her poke ball looking much better, although I could tell that she was still in some sort of pain. "Hey girl, how are you doing?"

"Feeebas," she told me, an eye smile conveying her emotions.

I smiled at this, "that's good, well, since this is the first bit of training you'll be doing in a while, why don't we start with some basic endurance, can you just swim a couple of laps arround the lake for me?" And after a quick nod, she was off to do as I asked. "Now you two," I turn around to look at both Eevee and Riolu, and to my surprise, they are already sparring with each other. Well then, I guess there's nothing for me to do, so I guess some training for myself would be good.

And so the day went, after her endurance training, I set Feebas up to work on power and accuracy, to try to make her water gun more powerful by constantly shooting it more pressurized and at the same spot on a row about 20 feet away. I swapped out Riolu for Pikachu, and had him work on the power of his moves against another rock. Overall, a very productive day.

* * *

_The fighting was intense, all I could smell and feel was the smoke, the blood, the sweat and the tears of the people and Pokemon arround me. I needed to move the fighting away from the area, there were too many kids, too many villagers still in the area, but how, how._

_The heat of the fire was strong, but nothing I had never been used to before, specially since this time it was my own, I used it, embraced it, and watched as the enemy began to retreat, then ..._

_It burns, it burns, the world is burning..._

* * *

"God dammit," I said, as soon as I woke up, "when are all of these dreams going to end." Grumbling to myself, I went down to meet my friends, the atmosphere today being more somber, the days events leading up to this. "So are you guys ready?" Zoey asked in a low voice. murmured assents could be heard from all of us, slightly worried about today.

"Well, today they are going to tell us when we are facing so at least there wont be any guessing." Gary spoke up, trying to get rid of all our nerves. I was actually quite happy about the fact that both May and Misty, were out of the competition, since now they wouldn't be in any danger, at leat not from other competitors, there was always Lucas to look out for.

We slowly made our way to the stadium, where we were addressed by a person from Devon. "Now, please, one by one, come up to the board, your next battle, and its time, will be posted up on it. Slowly please."

Tuning him out after he had said all that really mattered, we all looked at one another, then Zoey took the first steps towards the board, with us not far behind. Quickly finding her name, she looked to her opponents, and breathed a sigh of relief, it was no one we knew.

Spurred on by this, both Gary, Brock, and myself looked towards the board, in an attempt to find our next opponents, which wasnt very difficult to do at all, in Fact we all found it at the same time. GARY OAK AND BROCK STONE - DAWN BERLITZ AND ASH KETCHUM.

We all looked at each other, then Gary said, "Remember what I said before, lets all the best we can do, that's all we can do. Of course, the best you can do just isn't enough to beat us" he spoke, a smirk on his face.

"Well Gary, well just have to wait and see."

* * *

**Well guys, hope you guys enjoyed, and remember to rate and review, as all authors motivators are the people who read their stories.**

**Have a nice day, JZuCuadra**


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